Carmine is one of the most commonly used colors for fruit preparations and dairy applications. It represents 40% of the color market for fruit preparations. Carmine color is commonly used to color e.g. strawberry yoghurt. It is added to the fruit preparation during the pasteurization treatment (heat treatment with a minimum temperature of 85° C.) to 1) strengthen the color of the yoghurt when containing this fruit preparation and 2) to standardize the batch-to-batch color of the yoghurt and to avoid variations in color due to fruit quality or origin of the fruit preparation.
Carminic acid is a colorant which can be extracted from the female insect bodies of Dactylopius coccus costa (alternative name Coccus cacti L.). Carminic acid is harvested by extraction from the dried bodies of said insects with water or alcohol. The insects live on Nopalea coccinellifera, Opuntia fidus indica and other plants of the family Cactaceae cultivated for instance in the desert areas of Mexico and Central and South America. Depending on the pH the colorant may be a color in a spectrum from orange over red to purple and is generally known as cochineal or cochineal color. Carmine colorant is widely used in foods and beverages.
A “carminic acid lake” denotes herein a type of coloring composition consisting essentially of carminic acid combined more or less definitely with aluminum and/or calcium. The lake is prepared by reacting carminic acid with aluminum and/or calcium under aqueous conditions. The conditions are adjusted in a way that favors precipitation of the aluminum/calcium-carminic acid lake complex composition. This complex composition is termed carmine.
A description for preparing a carmine lake can be found in International patent (PCT) application WO2006/056585.
Carmine colors for fruit preparations are made of dissolved carmine lake in alkaline solution. These solutions are well soluble in fruit preparation bases, they give a bright intense pink shade and have the ability to color fruit pieces, which is an important quality factor for the fruit preparation producers.
However, these carmine solutions are heat sensitive when added in acidic media such as fruit preparations. This results in losses of 20% to 40% of the color during the heat process and variations of color from batch to batch of production if the temperature is not controlled well (in particular the cooling down).
Some solutions exist in the market. They consist mainly on dispersions of carmine lake. Dispersions of carmine lake are less sensitive to the media. However, they do not provide as bright and intense a color as carmine solutions and they do not color the fruit pieces.
Other solutions in the market are red acid stable carminic acid (ammonium carminate). This molecule has not been described in the EU regulation for colors or in the JECFA (Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives). Moreover, color solutions with ammonium carminate do not provide the capability to color fruit pieces.
Thus, there exists a need in the industry for an improved carmine food coloring composition for coloring foodstuff, such as fruit preparations, which is heat and acid stable and which provide a bright intense color.